Final Album Title, Cover and upcoming shows!

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Summer so far! Had some downtime and have some big news coming up so wanted to take the time to write an entry since it's been awile.

So when you last left your hero, I was chatting about the frustrations of booking gigs, cancelations left and right and then finally redeeming ourselves by doing our first online streaming gig thanks to Barry and BAM.

Well since then, looks like things are finally back on the upswing folks!

So after many months of swinging and missing on the booking front, we FINALLY got to play the show that was cancelled way back in Feb due to the snow at 33 Golden in New London last month. To be honest, I was a little concerned since it was a long trip to get there (almost 2 hours) and had no idea at all about the place, crowd and what not. It would of really sucked to drive all that way and end up playing in some shitty bar to nobody that would of really have bummed me out.

Thankfully when we got there, met Craig the owner and looked around I couldn't have been happier! The place reminded me of a very hip, old school punk bar you would of seen in NYC like CBGB's and even though we played first out of only two bands (other band actually came from Brooklyn!) there was a good crowd that was super responsive and we went over super well! You know you’ve had a good set when before the last song the owner points at you on stage yelling "you motherfuckers are definitely coming back here!" I met a lot of cool interesting people, drank my tonic water, hung out and we all had a great time!

So much so, that we have been asked to come back again for SAT AUG 18th! Details will be out soon on that gig I'm psyched to be going back! It’s not often that a club contacts me instead of the other way around. Good to see that there are still a few places that are really supporting local unsigned original bands and that actually “get it”.

So until that gig, the plan right now is to enjoy July since everyone seems to be having vacation time (including my annual jaunt to Ocean City NJ) and unless something very cool comes up we will wait until August to pick back up live show wise...

BESIDES I HAVE A NEW ALBUM TO FINISH!

If you noticed the home page, I've decided to name the new album "Glamour & Filth" with a tenative release date of September! Below I am including the cover, along with the track listing for you all to check out.

So far the singles I released from the album have been received very well (THANK YOU!) and as you see we have 9 more for the album which Gary and I have been working on the past few months. Funny when I started writing this one I thought “eh I’ll probably release as an EP 5 songs tops” and here I am 7 months after “Elephants” now I have 12 which I am super excited about.

It’s amazing thinking back to when I was recording HEAL with Darrell only 4 years ago at his house in Cleveland working on “I Wish I Had You Forever”. At that time I was just trying to get my health and life back in order and writing from the heart like I always try to do, but this time I was doing it all by myself

Back then I couldn’t squeak out an 8 bar guitar solo it sounded like complete shit (big thanks for my pal Barry for ripping that solo for me eventually!)

Fast forward to now I played every guitar solo on this album in like maybe 2-3 runs on it and I adore every one of them! Trust me I’m no Steve Vai I couldn’t carry his guitar case for him, but I felt like I was able to channel a few of the players I loved growing up and tried to emulate them the best I could playing simple, melodic solos that helped the song along.

I’ve never been a big fan of “shredders” I’d rather listen to solos from people like Neil Schon, David Gilmour, Joe Walsh, Neil Young and one of my favorites our own bass player Shawn Finney! Even though he is on bass in this band, hearing solos he’s performed and written in past projects we’ve been in together over the years, both he and Barry were the ones who showed me the perfect balance between shred and substance. Those solos Shawn did on those Brady Bastards songs to me, were magical.

Still to this day one of my favorite guitar solos written besides “Hotel California” She kinda messes it up a little but she’s good to look at 😉

The subject matter on the album might be suprising and a little “off putting” to some, but I had a lot of fun writing and trying to keep each song within the theme.

Like I said before, each album I try to have all of the songs focus on one central topic and after writing “MouthBreed” and looking back at a song I wrote years ago called “The Gift” I thought it would be cool and fun to keep each song within the theme of sex and kink to see if I could do it and funny enough, it came easy.

The band and I have been incorporating a few of the songs in the set and so far the response has been very positive which is great to see too, especially at the most recent show at 33 Golden.

One girl actually came up to me while I was smoking outside the club and we had a very funny exchange about one of the songs that night:

drunk girl “so, you’re gay right?”

Me “nope, why do I give off that sort of vibe?”

Drunk girl “well what about that song you played Peg?”

I then had to explain the act of pegging to a drunk person, which was actually quite hysterical

So the plan is for Gary and I to finish up the album, we play 33 Golden in August, release the album in September and have a kick ass album release party the same month in Danbury! It’s going to be an awesome night of bands, lights, fog, friends and the whole night will be based on the album’s theme so you seriously don’t want to miss it!!

As much as I love the last two records, this one I am really going to focus on marketing, promoting and getting it out there to as many places as possible. Sales and streams on the last two have made me happy, but I think after decades of playing in bands since I was 14, enjoying music and doing my own thing now for a few years I finally feel like I’m writing and performing the best I have ever been with more confidence.